Image alt text on Shopify: what to write and where to add it

Alt text is a short description of an image. Screen readers read it aloud to people who can't see the image, browsers show it if the image fails to load, and search engines use it to understand what a photo shows. For a store whose catalog is mostly photos, it's an easy thing to get right.

Why it matters for a store

• Accessibility. Shoppers who use screen readers rely on alt text to know what a product looks like. Without it, they hear a file name or nothing.
• Image search. People search for products visually, especially in fashion, home and gifts. Descriptive alt text gives your photos a chance to appear.
• Context for the page. Alt text adds to what search engines understand about the product page as a whole.

How to write good alt text

Describe what's in the photo, as you would to someone on the phone:

• Good: "Sage linen wrap dress, side view, worn with white sneakers"
• Good: "Close-up of the coconut shell buttons on the linen wrap dress"
• Not useful: "IMG_2041", "dress", "product image"
• Too much: "linen dress sage linen wrap dress buy linen dress summer dress women"

A few guidelines:

1. Be specific. Include the product, colour, and what the photo shows (front, back, detail, in use).
2. Keep it short. One sentence is usually enough; screen readers read the whole thing.
3. Don't start with "image of". Screen readers already announce it's an image.
4. Vary it across photos. Each photo shows something different, so describe the difference.
5. Skip purely decorative images. Background patterns and dividers don't need a description.

Where to add alt text in Shopify

Product images: open the product, click an image in the Media section, then Add alt text. Save.

Collection images: open the collection, click the image, and edit its alt text.

Images in themes and pages: in Online Store → Themes → Customize, image blocks usually have an alt text field. For images inside blog posts and pages, click the image in the editor and edit its description.

Files: images uploaded under Content → Files can also have alt text.

Doing it for a whole catalog

If you have hundreds of products, start where it matters most:

1. The first image of each product (it's used in collections, search results and when the product is shared).
2. Your best sellers and most visited products.
3. Every new product, as you add it. Make it part of your listing routine.

Some apps can generate alt text in bulk. Check the results: generic descriptions like "a woman wearing a dress" are better than nothing, but specific ones are much more useful.

How MAALI helps

MAALI's free SEO check samples your product and collection pages and flags pages where most images have no alt text, so you can see whether it's a store-wide pattern worth fixing.